GALLERY: Christmas came early this year for the Boys and Girls Club

By Hannah Curran, Editor

TRUSSVILLE — The Second Annual Holiday with Heroes took place on Wednesday, Dec. 7, and over 20 children from The Boys and Girls Club of Central Alabama received an early Christmas.

Enterprise Holdings Foundation hosted Holiday with Heroes, which allowed children with the Boys and Girls Club of Central Alabama to spend an afternoon with local law enforcement/military personnel, such as the Trussville Police Department, Jefferson County Sheriff’s Department, Birmingham Police Department, and representatives for the United States Military.

This year’s event has doubled in size and was able to help twice as many families and children.

The event started at Spare Time Entertainment in Trussville, where law enforcement/military personnel paired up with The Boys and Girls Club children, and the night of fun and excitement began.

“We’re pairing children with first responders from multiple organizations or jurisdictions,” Group truck manager for Enterprise’s South Central Division Eric Lund said. “We’ve got over 20 kids that are going to have dinner, we’re gonna go play some games like bowling and arcade games, and then they’re gonna go down to Target.”

The children were wound up with anticipation of what would come when they reached Target. All the law enforcement/military personnel gave the children a full lights and sirens escort to Target to begin the second phase of the night.

Each child was given $450 to shop their little hearts out, and it was hard to tell who was having more fun the children or the heroes. But, of course, the children weren’t the only ones receiving early Christmas gifts.

“The adults are going to do some shopping for needs for their family,” Lund said. “The parents and guardians stayed behind; we’ve got bowling for them, we’ve got what we’re calling the ‘Heroes Closet,’ which is a bunch of great items donated by the Power of Life Foundation. We’ve got everything from Under Armour socks to Kate Spade purses and different shoe types.”

Lund said this event allows Enterprise to give back to the communities they serve.

“So enterprise as a company, we do business in these neighborhoods,” Lund said. “So our goal is to give back and to partner with the corporate community, also with the government agencies to say, ‘Hey, look, let’s have some fun, and let’s help some families that may be potentially underserved.'”

However, none of this would be possible without their sponsors.

“We couldn’t do it without everybody’s generous donations,” Lund said. “We’ve had so many different sponsors. Some of our key sponsors are Spare Time, Target, and Enterprise Foundation, but we had numerous corporate partners, Courtesy Buick GMC, Doster Construction, and Jim n’ Nick’s. It just wouldn’t be possible without their generous donations.”

Enterprise Holdings Foundation also presented a check to the Boys and Girls Club of Central Alabama for $10,000.